POLITICAL HISTORY 



can be little doubt that the great body of local magnates quietly 

 acquiesced in the new state of things. 1 Though the recorded acts of 

 the Norman ruler are few and unimportant they may be taken as em- 

 blematic of the future history of the territory under his charge. It 

 was a frontier state, exposed to continual incursion and attack, always 

 on the defensive, the barrier against a hostile kingdom. 



The political status of the new district was scarcely completed be- 

 fore Ranulf Meschin's connection with it was severed by his succession 

 to the earldom of Chester after the wreck of the 'White Ship ' in 1 120, 

 in which his cousin Earl Richard perished with William the Aetheling 

 and several of the Norman nobility. The change of government occa- 

 sioned by Ranulf's withdrawal was fraught with consequences to the 

 northern province. King Henry appointed no vassal in his place, but 

 took the lordship into his own hand, and lost no time in visiting it in 

 person. In 1 122, on the occasion of a visit to Northumberland, we are 

 told on good authority that he turned aside towards the western sea with 

 the view of taking into consideration the condition of the city of 

 Carlisle, which he ordered to be fortified with a castle and towers, and 

 left money for that purpose. 2 The strategic importance of the city of 

 Carlisle as a bulwark against the Scot was recognized by King Henry 

 as it had been recognized by Rufus thirty years before. Occupying the 

 crest of a bold headland, protected in the front by the deep and swiftly 

 flowing Eden, to the west by the Caldew and to the east by the Petteril, 

 the ancient city which had played no inconspicuous part in the con- 

 quests of Roman, Englishman and Dane was withdrawn from the 

 oblivion in which it had lain for two hundred years, and was rebuilt and 

 garrisoned to defend the district from northern attack. If it be ad- 

 mitted that the settlement of England's frontier against Scotland and the 

 fortification of Carlisle were the most important deeds of the Red 



1 The writ of Gospatric, printed above, throws a new light on the Inquest of Service of 1212, in 

 which Henry I. is described as the original source of enfeoffment of several of the knights of Cumberland 

 in their fees. If we were compelled to accept the literal interpretation of the verdict of the jurors, there 

 could be no dispute that many of the great territorial owners were displaced by Henry I. to make way for 

 the Norman immigration. Gospatric's writ, however, in which he is described as the owner of Allerdale, 

 makes it quite clear that the infeudation was not originated by King Henry, but that the jurors of 1212 

 ignored all previous possession by Gospatric the father, and looked upon the king's confirmation of Waldeve 

 the son, in the fee of Allerdale, as the source of the title. The same interpretation may be applied to the 

 tenure of the barony of Greystoke. The jurors stated that it was Henry who gave it to Forne, the son of 

 Siolf or Sigulf, but from the mention of the name of Sigulf as one of the magnates of Cumberland ' in 

 Eadread's days,' it may be assumed that he was the owner of Greystoke before he was succeeded by his son 

 Forne, to whom Henry I. in after years confirmed the barony. There is no inconsistency in the evidence 

 of the two documents, for the jurors were following a well-established law in regarding the king's con- 

 firmation as the source of title. The displacement of Dolfin by William Rufus in 1092 may be accounted 

 for by his resistance to the annexation, for we are told that his brother Waldeve, who succeeded to Aller- 

 dale, was retained ' as an ally on account of the war between the Scots and England, as he was a Scotsman ' 

 (Tower Misc. Roll, if a). 



J 'Hoc anno (1122) Henricus post festum Sancti Michaelis Northymbranas intrans regiones ab 

 Eboraco divertit versus mare occidentale, consideraturus civitatem antiquam quae lingua Brittonum 

 Cairleil dicitur, quae nunc Carleol Anglice, Latine vero Lugubalia appellatur, quam data pecunia castello 

 et turribus praecepit muniri ' (Symeon, Hist. Regum, ii. 267). King Henry's attention to the fortification 

 of Carlisle was evident at a later date, as may be gathered from the money he expended in 1 1 30 ' in operibus 

 Civitatis de Caerleolio, videlicet, in Muro circa Civitatem faciendo,' and in the maintenance of a garrison 

 of knights and Serjeants for its defence (Pipt R. 31 Hen. I. pp. 140-1). 



II 241 31 



